Tucson Aqueduct

The Tucson Aqueduct is a feature of the Central Arizona Project designed to bring Colorado River water into the interior of the state. It consists of 87 miles of mostly open, concrete-lined canal, although two major sections are piped, one major siphon, and nine pumping plants. A transmission system links most of the pumping plants (Twin Peaks, Sandario, Brawley, San Xavier, Snyder Hill, and Black Mountain) to power provided by the Navajo Generating Station, near Page, Arizona. The Tucson system is divided into two phases, Phase A and Phase B, which in turn were divided into reaches, which facilitated the organization and administration of the various construction phases of the project. Phase A contained Reaches 1, 2, and 3. Phase B contained Reaches 4, 5, and 6.

The Tucson Aqueduct project provided the unprecedented opportunity for an extended, large-scale archaeological study of the later periods of Hohokam occupation and of the little known Archaic occupation of central Arizona. The project was organized around a series of tasks and problem oriented analyses that were guided by a consistent, explicit research orientation.

Archaeological investigations of the Tucson Aqueduct began in 1969, the year after construction of the Central Arizona Project (CAP) was authorized by the Colorado River Basin Act (P.L. 90-537). A feasibility alignment survey (Kayser and Fiero 1969) provided data for the general programmatic environmental statements on the Central Arizona Project (U.S. Bureau of Reclamation 1972). These data were supplemented by additional research, survey, and evaluative testing projects (Czaplicki 1984; Downum et al. 1986; McCarthy 1982; Westfall 1979) completed by the Arizona State Museum (ASM). Ultimately the Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) undertook a massive data recovery project at sites located along Phase A of the Tucson Aqueduct, the results of which were published in a six volume series (MNA Research Paper 35) that was completed in 1988. The ASM undertook an equally large data recovery project at sites located along Phase B of the Tucson Aqueduct, the results of which were published in a five volume series.

Following construction of the Tucson Aqueduct, Reclamation established a database of archaeological resources within the CAP right-of-way based on the original Class III survey data. An unknown number of these sites were either destroyed by construction or excavation, while others are no longer located within the CAP right-of-way. In 2010, Reclamation began hiring cultural resource management firms to revisit and reevaluate archaeological resources located within its right-of-way and obtain up to date data on site eligibility and condition.